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One foot in the future - The quest for perfect sound
Do you need a stack of boxes to make a decent stereo system? Jonathan Margolis explores the rarified world of hi-fi
Is a fancy Hi-fi worth the bother and expense? Up to a point. Few spheres of human activity are pervaded by as much snobbery and one-upmanship as sound reproduction. There are men, (women sensibly stay out of this nonsense) who will tell you they can hear the difference between music played on speakers which are connected up with gold-plated wires. There are also people who say the sound reproduction of old-fashioned vinyl LPs is better than CDs. Such fanatical views can largely be discounted. But once you have heard a high quality hiFi system, unless you have, as my father called it, cloth ears, you will be amazed at the clarity and depth of the sound.
So what makes a good hi-fi system?Well, broadly speaking, anything that comes from the far East and is sold on the High Street is probably not it. Hi-fi is one of the few areas in which the Japanese and Germans have made no impact. Practically all serious hi-fi comes from the UK and America. Your £200-£500 high street sound system will sound fine - until, that is, you hear the real thing.
Where do you find the real thing? You’re looking for a specialist hi-fi store. It will probably not be part of a chain, although the incomparable nationwide Richer Sounds chain will sell you something which is pretty much hi-fi for some amazing prices. Their staff are experts, too. But even so, the best stuff comes from small to medium sized, enthusiast shops listed in Yellow Pages. A decent sized town will have one. There you will find listening rooms and incredibly helpful staff who will let you try out all kinds of combinations of amplifiers, decks and speakers until you find something you like. They can afford to be patient. Such shops are not cheap, and they know that most people, become hooked on good quality sound.
Does ‘real’ hi-fi have to look ugly?Some staff at hi-fi shops will do everything they can to have you walk out with amplifier, CD deck, radio tuner and speakers all of different brands and looks. There is a perverse pleasure among stereo buffs in undermining what they sneeringly call WAF – Wife Approval Factor. Heaven forbid that any two elements of your Hi-fi system (apart from possibly the speakers) should match. And if any of it matches the carpet or curtains, you are seen as a heathen. But don’t be intimidated. If you are buying a top line brand it’s ok to match.
Can an attractive ‘one box’ system be serious hi-fi?By one box hi-fi, people don’t mean a ghettoblaster type of arrangement – that can never be hi-fi. But there is a new breed of real Hi-fi in which one neat box contains a pre-amplifier, amplifier, tuner and CD deck, with only the speakers as separate entities. Such systems typically cost about £1,000 for the box plus £400 or so for the matching speakers. And, to the chagrin of the crustier type of enthusiast, they sound terrific. They’re no bargain; a stylistically awkward but ethically pure mix-and-match system may well come in cheaper. But the WAF factor will be somewhere between low and non-existent.
Any recommendations then? If you’re going the separates route, the only advice is to find a good hi-fi shop you like and trust them to find a combination that fits your budget. In the one-box field two British products reign supreme: the Solo by Arcam and the Classik by Scottish manufacturer, Linn (see www.arcam.co.uk and www.linn.co.uk)
This article was created: 12 December 2006.
This article was last edited: 24 April 2007.
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